I Corinthians 6:12 All things are lawful for me, but all things are not helpful. All things are lawful for me, but I will not be brought under the power of any

I Corinthians 10:23 All things are lawful for me, but not all things are helpful; all things are lawful for me, but not all things edify.

I Corinthians 10:31 Therefore, whether you eat or drink, or whatever you do, do all to the glory of God

Matthew 15:19 For out of the heart proceed evil thoughts, murders, adulteries, fornications, thefts, false witness, blasphemies. 20 These are the things which defile a man..

Facebook is not the problem. If one is envious of their friends on facebook, getting rid of facebook will not solve the issue. It may reduce a stumbling block but it doesn't go to the root of the issue. They need to learn not only to rejoice with those who rejoice but to be content with such things as they have.

sc, first of all not all scholars agree with your view of Easter and Christianity.

http://tinyurl.com/lmh4886

http://www.easterau.com/

http://tinyurl.com/mzzjcsy

http://tinyurl.com/74pqohj

who is to say those who hold to the view you espouse are right and they are wrong? I would encourage you to read from those sites, not saying you must change your mind, just that not all scholars hold your view.

secondly, please notice pennned words carefully, she clearly stated she would celebrate Christ's Resurrection, give glory to God for her salvation and thank Him for passing over her sins because of the finished work of Christ. Not sure why you would have a problem with that. A pagan counterfeit holiday does not negate the place of the resurrection in the lives of believers. (I Corinthians 15:17-20; Romans 6:4,5)

She said nothing of eggs, lent, bunnies, etc. You will search in vain for any comments from anybody encouraging the celebration of Easter as you describe it. (if you can find one I will retract that comment) Pennned has posted here long enough for all of us to know she loves the Lord and doesn't have any desire to honor pagan traditions or gods.

Dear sister Jessica, please note that despite unkind remarks that continue from some posters on this forum, please note that you are an encouragement to many of us who follow your graciousness and trust in God despite the struggles you face. You are modern day example of the sufficiency of God's grace in the midst of trials. May God's grace continue to uphold you as you can say with Job,

Job 23:10,11 But He knows the way that I take; when he has tried me, I shall come out as gold. My foot has held fast to his steps; I have kept his way and have not turned aside.

John Yurich USA wrote:That is absolutely ridiculous to state falsely that the Catholic Church is a thousand times more evil than ISIS. ISIS and Islam murders individuals for not being Muslim. The Catholic Church does not murder anybody.

Besides the which Dorcas was referring to the many thousands the RCC leads down the path to eternal destruction. ISIS beheading a Christian sends them to their eternal reward. RCC doctrine and practices confirm thousands and thousands on their broad path to hell, all the time deceiving them into thinking they were on the strait and narrow way to heaven.

"They profess that they know God; but in works they deny him, being abominable, and disobedient, and unto every good work reprobate." (Titus 1:16)

I don't know why this fuss about Graham. I have always enjoyed Graham crackers. Aren't they one of the ingredients in smores???? One would think everybody would like Grahams. Well, maybe not the president's wife for a school lunch ingredient. Besides wasn't it Alexander Graham Bell who invented the phone? Where would be today without it. So much confusion in this one post alone.

John UK wrote:Thanks to all for praying. Disaster avoided. Good things can be accomplished by bearing one another's burdens. A human being can only take so much, the mind is a very delicate organ. Even temporary support can make a difference. Work still to be done, but at least one dilemma resolved. Praise the Lord for the love he imparts to his people to make them loving, kind, and gracious. To transport doctrine into practical outworking is a most marvellous thing, bearing fruit in the will of God. Thanks again for prayers, as I have been at peace in the situation all day.

Thanks for sharing the good news To God be the glory, His mercies are truly fresh and He restores our soul.

Appreciate you, glad you are back to posting here. God bless you brother.

ok, I read my post again and did mention sc. I believe my context was that you did have advantage to hit the link that was posted. I believe Lurker was pointing out that Jessica had given links to her write up in the USA Today.

It was kind of you to give Jim the benefit of the doubt, but he really left no doubt if you had read his two post both of which referenced problems due to sin and downplaying the sister's condition.

I guess all of us,especially me, would do well to think before we speak.

Thanks for your kind words Barry, and I also agree Mike from NY is awesome.

Companies have to respond to the consumer or risk losing their business. No buyers and the company goes out of business due to lack of capital. (unless of course your tax dollars bail them out) The government pretends no such restrictions exist (it will catch up with them eventually). So who is more responsive to the consumer, not the government but companies. Ask the lady who runs the florist if she appreciates government regulation on content.

Not too long ago the 800 pound gorilla on the internet was AOL. The number one browser was Netscape. Look where they are now. If you don't like your ISP, you fire them for the next guy. Why is Vonage so much cheaper than regular phone, they don't have to pay all the fees. One of the charges on your current phone bill is an excise tax that was put in place to fund the Spanish-American War(the war ended in 1898, the charge didn't). A charge that only hit the wealthy who could afford phones back then, so a soak the rich tactic, raise you hand if you feel rich now that you are also paying it, but I digress.

Now the internet is a utility managed by the same group that also runs the VA and the Post Office. How encouraging.

s c wrote:Thank you for your encouraging words,Jessica. ..pretty sure that he was not encouraging fast food. The Lord knows what he meant and,being impartial,that's how I understood it. ...hope that you two can come to an understanding. Unprofitable,perhaps you completely read through threads. I don't... mostly only parts...Hopefully,you're not accusing me of being cold. You will note that I was trying to encourage Jessica and give Jim the benefit of the doubt. Perhaps, you could do the same for me. You are being a bit presumptuous.

I don't think I mentioned you in my post, so no I was not saying you were being cold.

Barry from KY wrote:Actually Mike, it is the government that protects liberties, if not for our government, you or I would have no liberties. They have accomplished this by wielding the army, navy, air force and marines. It's not the NRA that gave you liberties!From what I've seen of the net neutrality thing, isn't it dealing with band width and has nothing to do with content, or am I reading it wrong???

Are they going to regulate content? Look at who made the ruling. The FCC. They currently regulate content over the airwaves.

Good analogy would be buying a house, if you come in with $300,000 you get a bigger and better house than if you come in with $75,000. Government trying to make it so both amounts buy same house. If you are the seller you then only sell the smaller houses instead of losing money on the bigger ones. The change will discourage investment, prices will rise, services will go down. It is inevitable.

Jim was saying exercise is helpful even if you are on fast food diet but what does that have to do with our dear sister. She even posted a link on her condition in another thread (see 2/21/15 9:38 PM Flower Shop Owner) which sc and Jim were was active in.

http://chipur.com/the-silence-of-stigma-shhh-jessicas-powerful-tale/

That article also has a link to the USA Today article Lurker posted again. So, it would not have taken much research to see what she is going through. Sigh, I just noticed he also made a rather cold hearted condemning comment over there (which hopefully they will remove)

actually shortly after the comment was posted I reported it for abuse and asked the moderators to remove it. Maybe now they will consider that.

Jessica you are such a blessing, and our heart breaks for your trials and afflictions, we can't imagine what it is like to be in your shoes. Many here, as stated, are praying for you and take great encouragement from your testimony and trust in God. God bless you sister.

dear sc I am sure you realize that Christian business people are not the moral police. EVERYBODY that walks into their store for business has issues with sin in their lives, no exceptions. Just because they serve those customers does not make them party to or condoning of their sinful behaviors. This is NOT the issue.

The florist would have turned down someone wanting flowers to celebrate their goal of having a thousand pornographic pictures on their computer. The florist would have turned down siblings wanting an arrangement to celebrate their incestuous relationship. The florist would have turned down the person celebrating rape and would not have given flowers for a 50 shades of grey party. The florist would not have given flowers to celebrate a cursing party. The florist would have turned down making arrangements for a Satanist get together.

The thing is she doesn't get those type of requests. (although I could see the Satanist one) The article specifically states that the "gay" person advised her the arrangement was to celebrate his "gay" marriage. She took a stand against it, we are thankful for her courage.

We don't know how many others she may have turned down for various reasons because they didn't bring a lawsuit or make it public.

Englightened wrote:ChristopherOOOOO and whoever is in agreement with Mr. OOO. You both should be ashamed. You would do well to fill in the OOOs lacking in your baseless comment. ..

Mr Enlightened,

Did you read the article???? I sincerely doubt it. If you had, you would know the reason Christopher put the start of his post in quotation marks is because it is a pull quote from the article. Brother Christopher said NOTHING about blacks in his comment.

While your upset at what is written in the pull quote is understandable, it is misdirected. Christopher did not write or research the article. You might want to consider asking the moderators to delete your comment or at the very least offer the good brother an apology.

sc, if one gives flowers for Valentine's Day it is because they are trying to honor the recipient. If I send flowers to someone's funeral, again the idea is to honor them. Flowers are a way to commemorate the occasion, to say this is a special day or you are a special person.

The article stated that the "gay" man specifically asked for floral arrangements for his "gay" wedding. She decided to take a stand regardless of the cost. I can imagine if someone walked into the florist and said, "I would like flowers to celebrate adultery with my adulterous partner", she would have also refused.

If your problem was indeed against the double standard, propaganda and spiritual grandstanding then the burden is with you to prove that this is true of this florist. The fact that she sold flowers to this customer for 9 years shows she is not promoting a double standard, she is simply refusing to honor "gay" marriage. I guarantee she wanted none of the publicity or problems she is now facing for taking a stand. She followed her convictions at a great cost to her.

here is the issue with your rational sister s.c. (and you know I respect you)

The adulterous couple is not coming in and requesting a flower arrangement/cake to HONOR their adultery. The couple committing fornication is not asking for a flower arrangement/cake to HONOR their fornication (in fact if they are getting married they are resolving the issue).

The homosexual couple IS asking for an arrangement/cake to HONOR their homosexuality.

You are entitled to your opinion (and that is all that it is see Romans 14:14) but having a Steelers cake is not equal to idolatry.

Is ignorance bliss? (I Corinthians 10:25 Whatsoever is sold in the shambles, that eat, asking no question for conscience sake)

I Corinthians 5:9-119 I wrote unto you in an epistle not to company with fornicators:

10 Yet not altogether with the fornicators of this world, or with the covetous, or extortioners, or with idolaters; for then must ye needs go out of the world.

11 But now I have written unto you not to keep company, if any man that is called a brother be a fornicator, or covetous, or an idolator, or a railer, or a drunkard, or an extortioner; with such an one no not to eat.

You are requiring more than the apostle Paul wrote in Holy Scriptures.

level playing field = bring everyone down to the lowest level, it never means raise everyone to the higest level. Thus you will have slower speeds, less access and poorer service, but you can thank the Lord everyone else does too!!

Sites like SA would more than likely be shutdown for their "hate" speech, cost of internet would go up (websites would have to get a license to operate) and speed would go down. (just ask the Europeans)

Scott McMahan, the world wide web is over 2 decades old, why would your scenario have not played out by now. If I want to go see my sister in St. Augustine I can take a 6 hour drive or a 2 hour flight. My budget says I drive. The fact that some can afford to fly doesn't make my option unavailable or less affordable. Ask the people who pay for cable if their bills went down when the government got involved, didn't happen. Ask the people whose healthcare is now higher with less choices if they think the government does a better job.